Fruit tarts and fruit cheese or curd tarts are long-standing elements of British cooking, but the meringue topping, possibly an American influence – they have ‘chiffon’ pies - dates from much later. There are several other puds which use a meringue topping – butterscotch tart, Oxford and Cambridge pudding, a Welsh border tart – and, of course, Queen of Puddings.
ingredients
Serves 8
Sweet pastry
225g (8 oz) plain flour
a pinch of salt
25g (1 oz) unrefined caster sugar
115g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter
2 egg yolks, beaten
approx. 2 tbsp water
Lemon filling
4 juicy lemons
150ml (5 fl oz) water
55g (2 oz) unsalted butter
85g (3 oz) unrefined caster sugar
25g (1 oz) cornflour, slaked in a little water
3 egg yolks
Meringue topping
3 egg whites
115g (4 oz) unrefined caster sugar
a pinch of salt
icing sugar
METHOD
To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and add the sugar. Chop the cold butter and rub into the flour until the texture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks. Mix to a dough, using the water if necessary, and form into a ball. If you have time, chill, wrapped in clingfilm, for about 20 minutes. Roll the pastry dough out to a circle of about 33cm (13 in) to line the base and sides of a 25cm (10 in) flan ring. Place the flan ring on a baking sheet and line with the pastry circle. Neaten the edges, and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Fill the pastry casing with a circle of greaseproof paper and fill with beans or rice. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven, remove the beans and paper, and reduce the oven temperature to 140C/275F/Gas 1. Bake for 10 more minutes. Remove, and turn the oven temperature up to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Meanwhile, for the lemon filling, zest two of the lemons into a saucepan. Squeeze all four lemons into the pan and add the water, the butter and sugar, and bring to the boil.
Add the slaked cornflour, bring up to the boil again and gently stir until thickened. Beat the egg yolks together, then pour a little sauce on to them. Stir in and then pour back into the pan. Gently heat and stir - do not boil - for 2 minutes. Pour into the flan case. Meanwhile, for the meringue topping, whisk the egg whites to peaks with the salt, then add 25g (1 oz) of sugar at a time, continually whisking, until all the sugar has been whisked in. Spoon the meringue over the pie and use the back of the spoon to make random peaks. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar. Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Take out, sprinkle with more icing sugar and leave to cool. Eat cold.
PS - Any citrus fruit will work – oranges, grapefruit, mandarins – but always check for the quantity of juice. I actually worry a little about giving fruit for juice in numbers: at certain times you might need ten fruit to get the same amount of juice as from four juicier ones. If you want to be really posh, you could use a piping bag to put the meringue on.